David Vinckboons I (1576-1631/33)

A forest scene with a stag hunt and a view on a village in the background

oil on panel, 52x76 cm

Provenance:
-Collection of a noble family, the Netherlands.

David Vinckboons was born in Mechelen in 1576 and began his career as a pupil of his father, Philip Vinckboons, who specialised in landscape painting in tempera. The family moved to Antwerp, to escape religious persecution in Flanders, and later to Amsterdam. In 1602 he married Agneta van Loon, daughter of a wealthy notary, and lived in a bohemian area of Amsterdam. They had ten children, many of whom were to become very successful as cartographers, archtitects and engineers.

Vinckboons possessed a special talent for painting small landscapes with very finely detailed forest and town scenes, rather in the style of Roelandt Savery, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Gillis van Coninxloo. Often he would paint open spaces in villages and towns, peopled with numerous lifelike figures dancing, feasting and merrymaking. He also made larger colourfull genre scenes of soldiers, beggars and children. Less often he painted biblical and historical themes. Especially charming are his elegant companies drinking and playing music at a table in a garden.

In our stag hunt the portrayal of the trees is unquestionable done by Vinckboons, with broad brushstrokes in dark green and brown tones and with the houses of a village visible through the foliage. This work shows the influence of Gillis van Coninxloo III, the first important painter of woodland landscapes who played an important role in the development of Northern landscape art at the turn of the 17th century. In this way Vinckboons helped to introduce the Flemish tradition of painting to Holland. Venduehuis The Hague is pleased to offer this painting in auction after having been family owned for many decades.

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for his help in cataloguing this lot.